Averages and pretty pictures are nice, but context matters. From that page you just linked:
Despite the level of wage growth reaching 6.7 percent in the summer of 2022, it has not been enough to curb the impact of even higher inflation rates. The federally mandated minimum wage in the United States has not increased since 2009, meaning that individuals working minimum wage jobs have taken a real terms pay cut for the last twelve years. There are discrepancies between states - the minimum wage in California can be as high as 15.50 U.S. dollars per hour, while a business in Oklahoma may be as low as two U.S. dollars per hour. However, even the higher wage rates in states like California and Washington may be lacking - one analysis found that if minimum wage had kept up with productivity, the minimum hourly wage in the U.S. should have been 22.88 dollars per hour in 2021. Additionally, the impact of decreased purchasing power due to inflation will impact different parts of society in different ways with stark contrast in average wages due to both gender and race.
Wage growth exceeding inflation for a bit recently doesn’t make up for the preceding decades of wage stagnation, and even if it did, wages still haven’t grown fast enough in the past few years to catch up to inflation. So my original point still stands - unless wage growth outpaces inflation, it doesn’t actually lead to an improvement in quality of life.
wage growth isn’t universal or even, in some industries it exploded, in others it has gone negative. if you want a livable wage… you don’t go into teaching for example. i wanted to teach but i saw that that job would stagnate so I didn’t pursue it.
if you want higher wages you have to move jobs or locations. that’s always been true of american life. the government isn’t going to jack wages to 30/hr ever. esp not the feds, but some states have made big improvements. not to mention you are not suppose to stay in a minimum wage job.
Why shouldn’t teachers make a livable wage? Why shouldn’t the minimum wage be a livable wage? What do you think the term “minimum wage” originally meant?
Make your definitive and sweeping statements if you want, but all it’s showing is that you don’t understand economics or history.
they should, but they don’t. you can’t build a future on what should be. you build it on what is. you have to go where the money is if you want to make money. should artists be paid more too? if you want a financially stable life you don’t pursue art.
I live in reality man. I don’t live in this lemmy revolutionary mindset that one day soon things will magically get better and everyone will become a communist/socialist and low wage menial jobs will suddenly be lucrative. I’ve also known plenty of ‘leftists’ who once they get 35 or own property… become rabid capitalists. funny how economic reality tends to defeat people’s youthful idealism once they stop being young and have to pay their own way in life. a lot of the ‘anti capitalist anarchist’ i know who went on about how landlords were evil… now own multiple properties and complain about their tenants not paying enough rent and keep jacking the rates 5-10% every year.
most of the former teachers I known have all quit because they wanted a livable wage. They mostly went into publishing or technology or healthcare. If they were women and they married a wealthy guy so they could continue to teach. Part of the reason there are so few male teachers anymore is because men can’t expect to find a partner to pay their bills for them, they are expected to pay the bills, and they understand teaching doesn’t pay the bills anymore.
You don’t live in reality if you think the current minimum wage has kept up with the amount of inflation since it’s inception. You don’t live in reality if you think the minimum wage isn’t supposed to be enough to provide the “minimum standard of living necessary for health, efficiency, and general well-being”. That quote is from the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 btw, the thing that establishes a federal minimum wage.
Many of us are struggling and there are no jobs around that pay over $40 an hour, these types of statistics are useless for the regular working american. Wages have not kept up with the cost of living at all.
I understand that. Sounds like you have to move then. If opportunity is not available in your town, you have to go to where it is.
Exactly why I left my hometown and never ever returned. There is no economic opportunity there. Most everyone who stayed there works for their parents business or took it over. There were no good jobs there and the residents actively vote against any/all economic development because they like living in a economically stagnate place and being dependent on state/fed money for basic services like water, sewer, and schools.
Unless wage growth outpaces inflation, those wage increases don’t actually improve quality of life.
https://www.statista.com/statistics/1351276/wage-growth-vs-inflation-us/
wage growth has exceeded inflation the past 3 years.
Averages and pretty pictures are nice, but context matters. From that page you just linked:
Wage growth exceeding inflation for a bit recently doesn’t make up for the preceding decades of wage stagnation, and even if it did, wages still haven’t grown fast enough in the past few years to catch up to inflation. So my original point still stands - unless wage growth outpaces inflation, it doesn’t actually lead to an improvement in quality of life.
wage growth isn’t universal or even, in some industries it exploded, in others it has gone negative. if you want a livable wage… you don’t go into teaching for example. i wanted to teach but i saw that that job would stagnate so I didn’t pursue it.
if you want higher wages you have to move jobs or locations. that’s always been true of american life. the government isn’t going to jack wages to 30/hr ever. esp not the feds, but some states have made big improvements. not to mention you are not suppose to stay in a minimum wage job.
Why shouldn’t teachers make a livable wage? Why shouldn’t the minimum wage be a livable wage? What do you think the term “minimum wage” originally meant?
Make your definitive and sweeping statements if you want, but all it’s showing is that you don’t understand economics or history.
they should, but they don’t. you can’t build a future on what should be. you build it on what is. you have to go where the money is if you want to make money. should artists be paid more too? if you want a financially stable life you don’t pursue art.
I live in reality man. I don’t live in this lemmy revolutionary mindset that one day soon things will magically get better and everyone will become a communist/socialist and low wage menial jobs will suddenly be lucrative. I’ve also known plenty of ‘leftists’ who once they get 35 or own property… become rabid capitalists. funny how economic reality tends to defeat people’s youthful idealism once they stop being young and have to pay their own way in life. a lot of the ‘anti capitalist anarchist’ i know who went on about how landlords were evil… now own multiple properties and complain about their tenants not paying enough rent and keep jacking the rates 5-10% every year.
most of the former teachers I known have all quit because they wanted a livable wage. They mostly went into publishing or technology or healthcare. If they were women and they married a wealthy guy so they could continue to teach. Part of the reason there are so few male teachers anymore is because men can’t expect to find a partner to pay their bills for them, they are expected to pay the bills, and they understand teaching doesn’t pay the bills anymore.
You don’t live in reality if you think the current minimum wage has kept up with the amount of inflation since it’s inception. You don’t live in reality if you think the minimum wage isn’t supposed to be enough to provide the “minimum standard of living necessary for health, efficiency, and general well-being”. That quote is from the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 btw, the thing that establishes a federal minimum wage.
Many of us are struggling and there are no jobs around that pay over $40 an hour, these types of statistics are useless for the regular working american. Wages have not kept up with the cost of living at all.
I understand that. Sounds like you have to move then. If opportunity is not available in your town, you have to go to where it is.
Exactly why I left my hometown and never ever returned. There is no economic opportunity there. Most everyone who stayed there works for their parents business or took it over. There were no good jobs there and the residents actively vote against any/all economic development because they like living in a economically stagnate place and being dependent on state/fed money for basic services like water, sewer, and schools.